Tonawanda News
435 River Road St.
North Tonawanda, NY 14120
May 12, 2003

To The Editor:

While it is unfortunate that Assemblyman Robin Schimminger
voted against Assembly Bill 4609, the bill that prohibits the killing,
shooting, maiming or injuring of intentionally confined animals for sport,
amusement or taking of a trophy; the practice commonly known as “canned
hunting, it is encouraging that this bill is on its way to becoming law.

Often advertised under euphemisms such as "hunting
preserves" or "game ranches,” canned hunts give “hunters” the opportunity to
kill animals who have been staked, caged or otherwise confined. Many of
these canned hunting grounds are so small that the hunter is guaranteed by
the hunt operators to go home with a kill.

The hunted animals often come from circuses, zoos, and big
game/wild animal breeders and are usually are semi-tame, having been raised
by humans for their entire lives. Canned hunts are far more accurately
defined as slaughters than hunts, because there is none of the element of
“fair chase” that hunters claim is a requirement for an “ethical” hunt.

So disgraceful are canned hunts that even certain
pro-hunting groups, like the Orion Institute, decry canned hunts as being
immoral. Fourteen states have banned the practice of canned hunting, and
thankfully, New York is poised to be the fifteenth. Clearly, a ban on these
savage displays of barbarity is long overdue.

For more information on canned hunts or other forms of
hunting, please contact the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting through our
website at